MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

6/11 Extra bases

The Cubs face lefty Cliff Lee on Saturday. They have a .290 batting average against lefties, second in the National League and third in the Majors. They are 8-7 against southpaw starters this year, 17-30 against right-handers.

Carlos Pena has the most at-bats among the Cubs against Lee, and is 6-for-29 (.207) with three homers. No one else on the active roster has more than eight at-bats against the lefty.

* The five-run eighth inning Friday night marked the 10th time the Cubs have scored five or more runs in an inning. The 10 innings with five or more runs are tied for the ML lead with the Red Sox.

* On Thursday, the Cubs got 8 2/3 shutout innings from the bullpen, the most since they threw nine innings to complete a 5-4, 16-inning win against the Marlins on July 12, 2002.

Sean Marshall has a 0.95 ERA in 28 relief appearances. That’s second lowest among relievers, trailing the Braves’ Jonny Venters (0.45 ERA). Marshall has struck out 30 and walked eight, and is averaging 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

* Darwin Barney is batting .205 in his last nine games, and is hitless in his last three (0-for-13). He’s hitting .229 on this road trip with four runs. Barney still leads all ML rookies with a .292 average, 69 hits and 32 runs scored.

* Saturday’s game is No. 9 in a stretch of 38 games in 38 days through July 10.

* On this date in Cubs history in 1952, Hank Sauer hit three home runs to lead the Cubs to a 3-2 win over the Phillies. All three came off Curt Simmons.

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